


Panda Eyes

by Ilthit



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alcohol, Asexual Character, Bullying, Complicated Relationships, Developing Relationship, F/F, Fat Shaming, Sexist Language, Sexual Harassment, University
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:07:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24512035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ilthit/pseuds/Ilthit
Summary: Anna knew getting dressed up and going to the pub was a bad idea. She'd only done it because Juliette asked.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15
Collections: Banned Together Bingo 2020, femslashficlets





	Panda Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> This is really not the kind of fic I'd usually post on AO3, but I wanted to submit it to Banned Together Bingo, so here you are, enjoy this mundane AU to my earlier werewolf story _Ride or Die_. Also written for Femslashficlets' Tarot prompt table.

This was why Anna didn’t go to pubs. This was why she didn’t wear makeup or skirts or body-hugging tops, ever. This was bloody why.  
  
His breath smelled like stale beer and cigarettes and Anna’s heart beat like the wings of a hummingbird. Nature documentaries. Birds of North America. Focus on that. No hummingbirds in London bars. She turned her face away towards the wall pressed against her back. The hallway on the way to the ladies' room. Just out of sight of the main room. “Fuck off, Brian.”  
  
“You say that. You don’t mean it.” His hand crept towards her, pressed against the wall, thumb already brushing her side. He'd called her fat in class, and again in the university cafeteria, because it had made his mates laugh. Something about shagging pasty porkers being like putting your dick in wet pasta. That was when she'd had her hair up in a messy bun and one of her grey sweaters on over a thrift store T-shirt, and she hadn't given him the satisfaction of acknowledgment. Not that it had made a drop of difference, because that was when the notes had started appearing. You'd think they were in fourth form.  
  
He was a head taller than her, skinny but in that hard, starved way that made her think of highway car crashes. Danger.  
  
“You can read body language, Brian? Read this.” She shoved her first and middle fingers in his face.  
  
She’d dealt with worse than some drunk who’d flunked out of med school and was now flunking out of pharmacy science. She’d shared a foster family with Kev for years, after all. Kev was a bastard, but Kev could eat the Brians of this world for breakfast.  
  
The heat of her anger kept the panic at bay.  
  
His nose wrinkled. “You’re such a— nasty…”  
  
She slipped out from under his arm and left him to sort out his words for himself. Juliette, she needed to find Juliette and get the hell out of here and then kill Juliette for dragging her here in the first place.  
  
She found her at the bar, a happy tipsy smile on her perfect face, her carefully curled and brown-dyed hair a little mussed from dancing. She’d been swaying on the floor with Sergei earlier. Sergei was thirty-two and a guest lecturer, which was almost like a professor, but none of their little group had said anything about it so neither had Anna, even though she had more right to object to Juliette dancing with creepy old men than most. She thought, anyway. Maybe.  
  
Maybe Juliette took everyone out on dates. Maybe she’d misunderstood what all those coffees after class were about, or the flirting. Juliette had a habit of doing things and then just not explaining what any of it meant, if anything. And she had all those costumes in her closet, which Anna had seen once when they'd come back to Juliette's place to grab her bag before the movies. What were they for? Who were they for?  
  
“Come on,” said Anna, grabbing Juliette's arm. The anger still fueled her. “We’re leaving.”  
  
Juliette slipped off her barstool and followed Anna without question, and Anna remembered why she liked her so much, despite the confusion and the flitting about and the way she never said what she was thinking. You didn't have to explain anything to Juliette. She accepted things the way they were. Accepted people the same way.  
  
“I hate this crap,” Anna said, wiping her face with a series of wet wipes from her backbag as they speed-walked down the night street towards the nearest tube station.  
  
“You’ll get panda eyes,” Juliette said.  
  
“I don’t care. I shouldn’t have let you talk me into this.”  
  
Juliette drew close and took Anna’s arm. “Aww, but… you really did look so pretty. I wanted to take you out and show everyone how pretty you are.”  
  
“I’d rather be ugly,” Anna said bitterly. “It's better being boring. Men are shit.”  
  
“Oh,” said Juliette. “Oh _no_.”  
  
“It’s okay.” Anna clung to Juliette's arm, the solidity of her presence. The anger was receding, leaving fear in its wake. “He didn’t do anything. He just…”  
  
She couldn't finish. Why was she making excuses for fucking Brian?  
  
Because if she didn't, she'd have to admit that what had happened really was something worth breaking down over.  
  
“I’m so sorry. You’re right. Men are shit.” Juliette tugged at her arm and stopped her mid-stride, pulling her up. Anna expected a hug, but found herself being kissed.  
  
Juliette's breath smelled like mint and her tongue tasted like candy—probably whatever sweet cocktail she'd just had. It washed away the memory of Brian's crustiness, the sticky feel of that wall against her back. Anna wrapped her arms around her and swallowed her sweetness like an elixir.  
  
After a while, she felt her muscles untense with a tremble. She gasped for air as they parted, and pressed her forehead against Juliette's, almost exactly at the height of hers. "I'm sorry," she said, though she didn't even know what she was sorry for. She _wasn't,_ either. It just seemed like the thing to say. _I'm sorry._  
  
Juliette shook her head, eyes shining, and then her smile broke out and she dropped her gaze. Anna knew it was because laughing turned her eyes into slivers and she was self-conscious about it. "I wasn't a hundred percent sure about you."  
  
"Neither was I," said Anna. "I mean… I'm ace, and I just thought… I don't know what I thought."  
  
"It's okay." Juliette stepped back only enough to take Anna's hand and squeeze it. There was a significance in that beyond just locking arms. It sealed something between them. "You don't have to figure it all out. Just let me know."  
  
"Thanks," said Anna, though all this would do was lock her in another week of obsessive navel-gazing. She'd fill her notebook with it. If Juliette didn't drive her mad, she'd do it herself. "I will."  



End file.
